The stories collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the early 1800’s serve up life, as generations of central Europeans knew it capricious and often cruel. Once they saw how the tales bewitched young readers, the Grimm’s brothers and editors aplenty after them, started “fixing” things. Tales gradually got softer, sweeter, and primly moral. Yet all the polishing never rubbed away the solid heart of the stories. Grimm’s folktales were attempt to transfer …showed first 75 words of 755 total…

…showed last 75 words of 755 total…flowers, birds, and singing in the woods, to the horror of dealing with crafty, devouring “animal”. Even though the Wolf “gets” Little Red-cap at the end, she succeeded to escape. And she did learn a lesson: now she knows what kind of “animal” wolf was and how to recognize the danger threading to her; and the wonderful world of allegory made this complicated issue to be explained in the easiest possible w! ay. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**